When you’re evaluating musicals to try to determine whether or not you can pull them off effectively there are many factors that you need to consider. Obviously you need to consider the talent that you have to work with when directing a musical. (I know that many school directors will plan shows years ahead of time based on the talent that they have available.) You need to consider the amount of help that you have at your disposal. Maybe you have time constraints, budget constraints, patience constraints… is that a thing, a real phrase? Hahaha. If not, it should be.
No matter your constraints, I would urge you to not be afraid of larger shows that might be a good fit for your students and your community, but that might be a little more demanding in terms of set and scenery.
Should large set “requirements” hold you back?
Many times, you will come across a show that is much more demanding than others in terms of technical aspects - especially in terms of the set design for your musical. I do agree that there are some shows that certain settings might be unavoidable, but more times than not, I think you will be surprised at how you can get creative and simplify a set. If you trust in an audience’s suspension of disbelief and are willing to put on your creative thinking cap, sets can become an obstacle that you can easily overcome.
I have been to shows that have taken place in black box type theaters where there is nothing more than simple black boxes as a set, but that isn’t what I am expecting from you. There is nothing wrong with taking that approach, but… frankly, that’s not what this blog is about. I think that even with a small budget, a few eager volunteers, creative thinking and a willingness to get resourceful, you can put together incredibly impressive sets on a small budget
Example: Jason Robert Brown’s Parade
While reading the script and listening to the songs of this musical, you will come across numerous set requirements that can seem rather daunting. There is a pencil factory, Leo’s office, the town square, a courtroom, a jail cell, etc. What do you do in situations like this? Rely on the theme, the main message, what the show is all about. Focus down into the most important parts of the songs, the script and the story.
In this example, I decided to focus on the setting, Georgia. It is almost its own character in the story - from describing its beauty to the character of the people that live there. I wanted a gorgeous sunset backdrop that would carry the feeling of the Old Red Hills of Home (the opening number) throughout the show. And I also wanted to focus on the tree that is used to hang Leo at the end of the show. The tree is involved in that incredibly powerful moment of the show, but also, helps to set the scene of where we are - Georgia, with its gorgeous drooping trees filled with moss.
The Sunset
The main structure for the set was a very simple two story set of platforms. Basically, three 4’x8’ platform decks were lifted to represent a second story when needed in the story. In the windows of this structure we hung simple ⅛” 4x8 hardboard sheets that were painted as a large Georgia sunset. Breaking down the sunset into this grid also made it a more manageable painting project.
Obviously painting something like this will mean that you need to find an artist that is willing to help out, but in many cases you should be able to find a willing volunteer. I remember in high school that there were many times that I personally (as a visual artist) was asked to paint large canvas drops to create scenery. And, I did so very willingly cause it was a cool thing to see - a large painting that you did being used in a show.
The Tree
The tree was a little bit more complicated to figure out. In this type of scenario what I find much success doing is searching on Google for “art installations” and “sculptures”. That is exactly what I did in order to get the ideas and inspiration for the massive tree. I found beautiful ideas based on “indoor tree art installations” and “tree sculptures”.
The tree construction began with a simple wooden skeleton that I built from scrap wood found in the scene shop. Around this skeleton, I used inexpensive chicken wire from the hardware store to build the main shape of the tree. To give the tree a skin, I paper-mached newspaper around the chicken wire. Finally, adding torn pieces of cardboard over the newspaper gave the texture of bark. This was our tree trunk.
For the leaves, I bought several packs of inexpensive, green construction paper - in a few different shades of green. I used a paper cutter to cut the construction paper into strips. We then stapled the strip ends together to create a leaf-type shape. Those loops/leaves were then stapled together into large sections that were hung from the ceiling. The trick here was to do enough of these clumps of leaves that it was impressive. If we would have only done a minimal amount of them it would have not been impressive at all - possibly would have seemed lame and looked as cheap as it cost. But if you do enough that you seem insane - then it is impressive! Hahaha. (The pure volume was done by having people at rehearsals that had down time continue to staple construction paper together.)
Really the only other thing that we added to this was a borrowed spiral staircase from a college nearby to get to the second floor of the set. So, basically using platforms and wood that we found in the scene shop, newspaper, chicken wire, and other simple materials, we were able to build a pretty darn impressive set.
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So, the moral of the story? Don’t let set requirements immediately turn you away from a show. You don’t need to mimic other shows that you have seen. Your show doesn’t have to look the same as broadway’s. There are almost always ways of getting creative with sets and turning big sets into concept sets that complement the show just as well, if not better than a large budget, complex set.
We would love to see some of your creative ideas! Share them in the comments below!
And, if you haven’t already, check out our free resource, the Character Breakdown Spreadsheet. It is an awesome tool for helping you prepare for directing a musical.
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